Tuesday, October 25, 2016

368. Bari lineage groups in Koraga Community

The study of the evolution of bari lineage system in Tulu communities
is an interesting subject given its importance in the overall evolution of the
heritage, language and culture in the region. The Koraga community being one of
the earliest settlers and inhabitants of this land bear clues to the early
evolution of our heritage. A popular spirit deity from the Koraga community
known as Koragajja, has been
considered a powerful spirit and is being believed and worshipped by many devout
people.

However, the community in general has been
ignored and remained backward and poor for many years. The situation is being
remedied in the recent years as a result of encouragement and support from the
governments well as welfare agencies and it is hoped the community shall get
better employment opportunities and live with natural justice and pride on par
with rest of the members of the society.

Agave
fibers for clothing

Traditionally, fibers derived from “daddel” shrub (Agave) are offered
symbolically along with “aghel”
(offering) to the dead along with food offerings in the posthumous ceremonies
among the Koraga community. The usage of agave fibers as symbol of cloths among
the Koragas, is a vestige of ancient
practice of offering clothing material to the dead along with food. Bālarāj suggests that the fibers of agave
were used for fashioning cloths in the early days of civilization among the
community.

Bari
system

The Koraga community follows the bari system of genetic lineages like other
Tulu communities. Probably, for the first time, we present information on the bari lineages existing in Koraga community.

Naḍusāl
bari lineages

Traditional Tulunadu region has been conventionally
divided into northern part, central part and southern part for convenience of
reference. The central part (from Pavanje River upto Brahmavara ) is commonly
referred to as “naḍu-sāl” among the tribes.

Five
baris in the nadu-

sāl Korags:

1 Tadpennār

2. Pāddyanār

3. Tirgenār

4. Mookenār

5. Kundaranna

Among the Koragas of the “baḍakāyi sāl” (northern part) and” tenkayi sāl” (southern part) may have different bari lineages. (Data to be collected).

Equivalent
baris

It is interesting to note that the five baris have
equivalent baris existing in other Tulu communities. The Taḍpenār is considered
equal to Tālianna or Salian bari. The Pāḍḍyanār is considered equal to Bangera
or Bangeranna lineage among other
communities. The Tirgenāar Is considered to be equal of Shriyaan lineage and Mookenār has
been considered to be equivalent of Muncharianna and Kotian baris.

Analysis
and implications

It is interesting to note that at least three
of the above cited five baris are apparently unique to the Koraga community and
probably not repeated among other communities. The Mookenār and Kundaranna
appear to have been present in other Tulu
communities.

It appears the three basic baris- Taḍpennār, Pāddyanār and Tirgenār indicate three types of early
professions followed by these tribes in the early civilized society. Based upon
simple word analysis of the bari names, we can infer that Taḍpenār originally
represented a set of tribal artisans specialized in basket
weaving and “ taḍpe” making. A taḍpe is a traditional woven hand
crafted plate designed from tender pieces of bamboo stalks or other similar
type of tender plant material and utilized in cleaning rice and other
grains. The Pāḍḍyanār, possibly
represented tribal artists devoted to
singing ballads, the pāḍ/pāḍḍya being referred to songs. In the same lines the
Tirgenār bari probably represented the group of wanderers who conducted the
marketing of the handicraft products among the civilized society. The word
“tirgu” means to wander, spin or rotate”. However, Shri Balaraj suggests that
the Tirgenār is the person who is able to divert the decisions in tribal
panchayat meetings.

The origin and meaning of the lineage sects Mookenar,
Muncherianna and Kundaranna are not clear at present: It is probable that these
baris represent ancient tribal groups/subgroups that merged with the community.

Recognition of equivalent baris has certain
important implications. One, it suggests that those baris considered equal
to the basic Koraga baris possibly represent parallel tribal groups that settled, inhabited and probably partially assimilated with the community in the
antiquity. Two, it suggests that in the early historical period, the degree of communal discrimination was insignificant among the tribal communities. such that members
of the Koraga tribal community could openly consider equivalents among the
newly invaded and settled tribes in the land. In other words all the tribes
were relatively poor and shared common problems of livelihood. And the
discrimination in the tribal society probably was set in later as a consequence
of recognition of socio-economical rich- poor dichotomy among the various tribal
groups.

Acknowledgements

The essential information is gathered from Shri
Palli Gokuldas (80 years) and Shri Bālarāj Kodikal, two leaders of Koraga
Community in Mangaluru. The interview
was arranged on 15-09-2016 with the help of Shri Dinesh Salian, Mulki and Shri Peroor Jāru. The blogger is
indebted to these gentlemen for kindly providing the information and sparing
their time and efforts for him.